Will shaving your face make you look younger?

Could shaving your face have anti-ageing benefits? Dermatologists have their say on the taboo hair removal trend.

According to recent reports, many women have been taking a tip from their blokes by shaving their faces regularly. But it's not just to get rid of those downy hairs, oh no: apparently this is also an anti-ageing routine.

Since many women (up to three-quarters, according to the NHS) find their facial hair is more noticeable as they get older, especially after the menopause, shaving has become the norm for quite a few. Quick and easy, no fuss.

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But while others despair at the idea, citing ingrowing hairs, skin irritation and coarser-looking regrowth as reasons to step away from the razor blade, some dermatologists are now claiming there may be anti-ageing benefits attached.

Talking to the Mail Online, London-based cosmetic medical practitioner Dr Michael Prager, has said, 'From an anti-ageing point of view, home shaving has some effect. It’s like a mild form of microdermabrasion, so it encourages collagen production, which reduces wrinkles. Whenever there’s trauma to the skin, collagen is stimulated to help cell renewal.

‘The notion that shaving influences regrowth is wrong,' he added. ‘Cutting off hair above the root won’t cause any feedback to the follicle, which is the live part that produces the hair and sits below the skin.'

Dr Prager isn't alone in his view, either. Dermatologist Dr Neal Schultz even went so far as to say, 'Most men shave their faces - and thereby exfoliate two-thirds of their face - regularly for years. That’s the reason that by their 30s and 40s, men’s skin often looks better than women’s skin.’

So what do you think? Cleopatra, Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor are all now said to have shaved their faces - would you try it?

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